We are finally moving towards making the disabled a part of mainstream society. A number of efforts are on to make the lives of the hearing disabled, productive as well as comfortable. These efforts involve developing technologies that will not only recognize spoken English and convert it into sign language, but also convert sign language into spoken English.

These products are either in the experimental or prototype stage. Once commercially viable, these products are likely to open up a number of educational and employment opportunities for the hearing disabled. As a society, it is about time that we began to change our attitudes towards the hearing disabled.

Today, technology has provided a number of solutions to remedy hearing disabilities. Hearing aids have undergone tremendous improvements. Cochlear implants are now available that can correct deafness or hearing disability in certain cases.

There are various cases of hearing disability where no such remedy can be applied. In such cases, use of sign language remains the only option. As a matter of fact, the technological solutions that are under development are based on using sign language in one way or the other.

A two-way dictionary for conversion of English into sign language and vice-versa is a very exciting possibility. This will require the recognition of a visual gesture and conversion into a spoken form. There are a number of technology based challenges in such research before a commercially viable product can be released. It would not be imprecise to say that the technology is in its infancy; much like speech recognition software was around two decades ago.

Once these tools are commercially viable, the hearing disabled will not have to think over how to learn sign language. These tools are likely to revolutionize the teaching and learning of sign language not just for the hearing disabled but also for people with normal hearing ability.

The time may not be far away when we can think in terms of including sign language as a regular language in our school curriculum, thereby eliminating the social barriers that have segregated the hearing disabled.